Tanjiro and the other demon slayers stood frozen.
Standing between them and the clearing of the goal line was a… creature.
No, not exactly a creature.
It wasn't a demon. Nor an animal. Nor anything Tanjiro had ever imagined.
It was… a monster plush suit.
A massive one.
The thing stood upright on two legs, two thick arms gripping wooden swords. Its entire body was a deep forest green, but what really stood out was its bizarre design, its head was shaped like an octopus, large and round, with dangling features that made it look both ridiculous and terrifying. Its torso was massive, big enough that two people could easily fit inside.
And sprouting from its back were six long tentacles, swaying and curling in the air like living whips.
Tanjiro's eyes widened.
"W–what… is that?"
Zenitsu trembled so hard he looked ready to evaporate. "T-Th-That's the monster… Lu-chan…"
"Lu-chan?" Tanjiro repeated, stunned.
Zenitsu nodded miserably. "Y-Yeah… th-that's what they decided to call it…"
"They…?" Tanjiro began, then stopped.
His nose twitched.
He sniffed again.
"No way… I can smell Akira-san and Erika-san inside. Are they both in there!?"
"Yes," Zenitsu whispered, tears in his eyes. "They're the monster. Both of them. And they're strong, Tanjiro. They are very, very strong."
Yes, this absurd sight was exactly what Akira had come up with.
A plush monster suit… piloted by two people.
Akira handled all movement from the front, wielding two swords.
Behind him, sitting backwards, Erika controlled the six tentacles sprouting from its back, each one actually her extended red ribbons hidden inside the suit.
The entire thing was made from special materials Akira had evolved, making the suit extremely durable. The tentacles stretched far, maybe not as far as Erika's true ribbons, but plenty long enough. And thanks to Erika's Blood Demon Art's vision-sharing, they could see in both directions perfectly.
A creature with no blind spots.
Back when Erika first saw the prototype, she stared at him like he'd lost his mind.
"Why this?" she asked flatly.
Akira replied like it was the most natural thing in the world."Well, it helps me train my swordsmanship and your ribbon control at the same time."
Erika sighed. "Why don't we just attack them separately? Wouldn't that be more efficient?"
"What's the fun in that?" Akira countered without missing a beat.
"Be serious."
Akira had simply smiled. "I am serious. This is training! Not only do we sharpen our skills, but we can also train our teamwork, too. Opportunities like this are rare, you know~."
Erika had hesitated.
"But… wouldn't carrying me the whole time tire you out? Wouldn't that affect your own training?"
Akira, smiling reassuringly:
"Oh, don't worry. Training while carrying a heavy weight is actually really common."
That was the day Akira nearly died.
Still, after some coaxing and after making sure Akira recovered, she agreed to the idea.
And so now, Akira and Erika stood before the demon slayers inside the towering plush monster.
Originally, Akira had named it Cthulhu.
But after voting…
Well, since both his sister and Erika sided against him, it was renamed:
Lu-chan.
Two against one. Akira never stood a chance.
Now Lu-chan stood before Tanjiro and the demon slayers, blocking the final clearing.
Behind the monster was the goal.
All they had to do was deliver Princess Pinky-chan to that point, and they would win.
But no one could move.
A heavy tension filled the air.
From inside Lu-chan, a voice echoed, distorted, neither Akira's nor Erika's:
"Come."
The single word jolted everyone back to their senses.
Tanjiro and the others roared and charged.
At that moment, the six tentacles on Lu-chan's back whipped to life.
They moved like living creatures, sweeping out in a spiraling storm of slashes.
Erika's Blood Breathing — Second Form: Crimson Rose Blooming Vortex.
Demon slayers were knocked down instantly, collapsing as though their strength was sucked out of them.
Erika's tentacles... RIBBONS, or rather her device, is currently in its illusionary form, so they didn't inflict wounds; instead, they drained stamina.
Low-level demon slayers collapsed instantly, dropping like flies.
Only fighters with strong stamina, like Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and a few veterans, managed to dodge the crimson storm.
Tanjiro dashed forward after dodging all the tentacles.
"Hinokami Kagura — Dance!"
But Akira moved before the slash could land.
He crossed Lu-chan's wooden swords and blocked Tanjiro's blade, sparks flying, even though they were just training weapons. Akira twisted his weight and delivered a clean kick that launched Tanjiro backward.
Zenitsu barely had time to shriek before he, too, was sent flying by the same motion, crashing into another group of demon slayers.
A few newcomers tried attacking from behind, thinking the giant plush's back was a blind spot.
They were immediately swept into the air by tentacles.
Akira surged forward, delivering several clean slashes that pushed back everyone who remained standing.
Tanjiro clenched his teeth, thinking desperately.
"How do we beat this…?"
He made up his mind.
"Everyone! Try to get the cart to the goal! We'll hold Lu-chan here!"
Some demon slayers sprinted with Princess Pinky-chan's cart, while Tanjiro and the others formed a perimeter to stall the monster.
But the tentacles suddenly shot out, latching onto a far tree like grappling hooks.
Lu-chan swung across the clearing like Spider-Man, landing directly in front of the group pushing the cart.
They were blasted away in seconds.
More tried to push through, only to be knocked away again and again, Lu-chan moved with perfect synchronicity, so fluid it looked like a single organism, not two people inside a suit.
Despite how ridiculous the plush looked, its movements were terrifyingly coordinated.
At first, Akira and Erika really had struggled to move inside the Lu-chan suit.
The timing was off, the balance was off, Erika's tentacles would swing a second too late, Akira's steps would shake her seat, and they nearly toppled over more than once.
But for some reason, one day they suddenly synced.
Perfectly.
Akira himself didn't understand it.
It felt way too soon for them to go from struggling to perfectly in sync.
He tried to analyze it, breathing rhythms? shared vision? muscle instinct??
But nothing made logical sense.
So he simply accepted it as one of those things and moved on.
From there, Tanjiro and the demon slayers tried attacking again.
And again.
And again.
But Lu-chan crushed them one after another.
Tentacles swept through their formation, knocking them flat.
Akira's wooden swords sent fighters tumbling.
Erika's Tentacles... RIBBONS, with their precise control, drained their stamina with each touch.
Within minutes, the clearing was a field of collapsed bodies.
Tanjiro included.
Every demon slayer lay sprawled across the ground like corpses scattered after a battle, groaning, twitching, or simply defeated in spirit.
Lu-chan stood victorious, towering over them like the final boss of some bizarre children's picture book.
Lu-chan finally straightened its plush back, and this time Akira's actual voice came out:
"This round's winner—us."
The defeated demon slayers groaned in despair.
Then Akira added, "Alright, guys, take them back to the respawn point."
On cue, three hulking figures stepped out from the trees.
Yoriichi Type Null Units:
Alpha. Beta. Gamma.
Akira was using them as assistants. They hauled unconscious demon slayers, reset traps, and performed general chores.
They moved with mechanical precision, grabbing the collapsed demon slayers one by one, collecting them like sacks of rice. Then, with surprising gentleness, they placed everyone into the cart beside Princess Pinky-chan and dragged the entire load back toward the starting point.
Once the area was clear, the plush suit hissed and split open.
Akira and Erika stepped out, both drenched in sweat and panting lightly.
Erika immediately wiped her forehead and groaned.
"Akira… can we please install some kind of AC in there? It's like a sauna."
Akira nodded thoughtfully. "I did install an internal cooling system, but… maybe it's not strong enough. I'll add more coolant next time."
Erika narrowed her eyes. "We're not going to freeze inside it, right?"
Akira paused.
Then, with the confidence of someone who had never tested that possibility even once, he answered:
"Well… we should test it. But since the materials evolved from plants, I'm pretty sure they don't freeze...Probably."
Erika stared at him with the expression of someone questioning all her life choices.
Erika let out a long, exhausted sigh, brushing hair from her face.
"No one passed this test this time either… Are we being too tough on them?"
Akira crossed his arms, completely unfazed.
"This is for their own good. If they don't want to die in the final battle, they have to suffer a bit here. Better now than against an Upper Moon."
Erika opened her mouth to reply.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
A sharp alarm cut through the forest.
Akira reached into his pocket and pulled out a small metallic device.
Erika's eyes widened the moment she saw it.
"Akira… is that the demon sensor? If it's beeping, that means…"
Akira's lips curled into a calm, almost eager smile.
"Yes. It means demons are near."
He glanced toward the distant canopy, tone sharpening.
"They're closing in on Headquarters."